New Delhi: The data collected for the National Population Register (NPR) will be voluntary but it will create immense problems at the stage of verification for the preparation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) if the person is declared "doubtful."
Prof. Faizan Mustafa, vice-chancellor of NALSAR (National Academy of Legal Studies and Research) University of Law, Hyderabad, who runs a legal awareness series on the Internet, says irrespective of whatever the politicians of the ruling and opposition parties may say, both NRC and NPR are connected as part of the Citizenship Act as amended in 2003.
He welcomed announcement by Prime Minister Modi, followed by one by Home Minister Amit Shah, that the government has no intent to go for an all-India NRC, but pointed out that it can be brought any time once the NPR is ready.
He doubts motive behind the Government's attempt to announce the Census and NPR together early this week since they are governed by separate laws and as such NPR for updating the population data, has nothing to do with the Census exercise undertaken every 10 years except that both are decennial.
Dr Mustafa says the NRC's link with the NPR will be clearly established if one goes through the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 and he cites for the purpose sub-rule 3 of Rule 4 that reads:
"For the purposes of preparation and inclusion in the Local Register of Indian Citizens, the particulars collected of every family and individual in the Population Register shall be verified and scrutinised by the Local Registrar..."
Prof. Mustafa says the local registrar shall not be a judge or a district magistrate but a small officer who may put a person in the category of a "doubtful" citizenship if he suspects truthfulness of the answers volunteered by him/her in the NPR and the problems for that person begin thereafter as witnessed in Assam.
The Rules say the local registrar means a local officer, or a revenue officer, appointed at the lowest geographical jurisdiction of a village or rural area or town or ward or demarcated area within a ward in a town or urban area.
The professor says apprehensions in the minds of the people triggering protests all over the country can be removed if the government, through a new gazette notification, removes all eight additional points added in the questionnaire and adopts one used for collecting data in the NPR in 2010.
The points he wants removed include information on Aadhaar, voter card, driving licence etc. that is voluntary but may cause problems at the stage of verification to prepare the NRC. He also stresses that the questions on the date and place of birth of the parents are also unnecessary.
